This is the blog of Eco-Vista | Brent Stephenson, a wildlife photographer, guide, and birder based near Napier, New Zealand. His wildlife, landscape, and people images can be discovered at his portfolio website.

Monday, 16 November 2015

Okarito in our dreams

We awoke to another rather drizzly start,
not enough to dampen our spirits though!We stopped quickly for a coffee in Arthur’s Pass and then headed on up
and over the Pass.We stopped at a few
spots to scan the river to check for blue duck, but to no avail.They are there, you just have to be
lucky!As we headed out towards the West
Coast the weather seemed to brighten a little, although showers passed through
periodically.There were lots of NZ
pigeons as we drove, with 5+ in quite a few trees, and in one at least
15+.Amazing to see.

We started to also see weka on the side of
the road and in the fields, and we even had one little dare-devil run out in
front of us, luckily he lived to tell the tail.We carried on through to Hokitika, stopping at the Hokitika sewage ponds
on the way.There were lots of waterfowl
on the ponds, with grey duck, scaup, and shovelor, but no sign of the
long-staying escapee Cape Barren geese.In Hokitika we grabbed some breakfast stores, some lunch, and then
headed on through to a lake to have our lunch.The sun almost came out, and we couldn’t work out whether to take our
jacket off or leave it on, funny old weather!After lunch we went for a walk and had an adult weka with four almost
fully grown young ones come and investigate us.They are such comical and inquisitive beasts, and just so much fun to
watch all the antics and family dynamics.Everyone managed some nice images and so we carried on into the forest
to look for other forest birds.We had
several nice close views of small groups of brown creeper, with some coming
right in to investigate us.They too are
stunning little things and really have to be seen to do them justice.Several male tomtits were also evident, as
were grey warblers.

We then carried on south, keeping a sharp
eye out for falcon.So far these birds
have been elusive, but with everyone on the lookout one has to pop into view at
some stage…we hope!Lots more pigeons, a
good number of swamp harriers, and several magpies, but no falcon.We made a few short stops along the ay, and
the headed out to Okarito to take a look at the lagoon.We saw several very distant great egrets, and
a few other bits and pieces, scanned for falcon, and then carried on to Franz
Josef.On the way we made a stop for
fernbird, getting quite nice views of a bird skulking in the shrubbery, as well
as a stonking little black fantail.

In Franz Josef, we checked in to our
accommodation, had a quick unpack, and then headed into town for a fantastic
Asian dinner at King Tiger – superb food and highly recommended!And then back to the accommodation to do the
checklist and then out to Okarito for our rendezvous with Ian Cooper from
Okarito Kiwi Tours.We arrived a little
early, with rain still drizzling, hoping like heck it was going to stop.As Ian arrived the drizzle seemed to ease and
we set about getting our gear ready and being briefed on what was going to
happen.We then headed deep into the
forested area along some logging tracks to get into position for the
evening.Our first position was near the
male of a pair whose territory was closest to the road.It seemed like he may have already been
stirring when we arrived, and as it got darker, he gradually moved further away
from us up the hill.The drizzle was
still holding off, so Ian headed off down the trail to try and locate a second
pair and see if they were in a better position.

A short while later, the radio sparked into
life and Ian called us all towards him.We quickly, and as quietly as possible headed off down the dark trail
towards him, and after a steady walk for 10-15 minutes we managed to catch up
with him.He had Joeline, the female of
the next pair, not too far off from the track, and knowing this bird, he knew
she would want to cross that the trail we had just come in on.So we got into position and waited.Every now and then we could hear movement in the
dense vegetation, and Ian kept moving us along the trail in the direction of
her parallel movement.Then a glimpse of
her feeding in a less dense area, before she moved off into denser brush.And then the drizzle started again, first
just a few drops, then a little heavier, until it was not quite rain, but light
drizzle.We kept moving along the trail
with her, and then with us all in position, she walked out of the forest and
stood for a moment right in front of us.Sniffing the air, and then slowly walking along looking for food,
completely unperturbed, she walked right past us giving incredible views.She ran a little along the trail in front of
us, and then disappeared into the thick bush on the other side of the
trail.In all viewing for about 20
seconds, and as usual Joeline gave beautiful relaxed views.Wow!What a fantastic experience, Ian had worked his magic again!

Having all had super views we moved ff down
the trail away from Joeline to leave her to her nights foraging, as we did the
rain eased a little and then stopped.We
gathered up and excitedly discussed what had just happened, before then heading
off back to the van.What a fantastic night!We said our good-byes and thanks to Ian and
then headed back to the accommodation, spotting a couple of possums on the way…home
and in bed before midnight!Luxury!

Day
total – Seen = 48 + 1 heard (morepork); new for the
trip = 3; total for the trip to date = 148